New SS36 Record at Mojave

[36hplandspeedracer]

Sit down folks. Under almost ideal conditions (except for some on and off strong 90 degree sidewinds) at the lower altitude and on a paved runway at the Mojave Mile (temps were high 70's, low 80's), Dan Durie in the Beaver Geezers "Orange Thunder" 58 bug recaptured the SS36 Beetle record back from Juan Cole and his "Herbie".

The speed, and this is where you have to set down, was a rousing 82.4 miles per hour. Yes, yes and yes, and I was present to witness and inspect the car. Dan has given me permission to post "ALL" of the details about his car to the folks on the 36hp Challenge newsletter and I will do that later this afternoon.

Juan and Dan both set 75 mph records at Bonneville last fall and both engines were still tuned for Bonneville. Over the winter Juan performed some transmission upgrades and Dan elected to "reduce" the size of his tires and stick with the same used 61 tunnel tranny equipped with the stock 4:37 R&P and the long throw from 3rd to 4th he ran on the salt. His unusual tire combination, and this may sound strange, was to run 145's on the front and tiny 135's on the rear and just spin the dickens out of the motor.

The tire swap, along with the last years Ron Chuck dyno tune that netted 37.8 horses at the flywheel, are the main factors for Dans phenominal speed. And it was not a fluke. His first pass at Mojaves low altitude was a record 79.2, followed by reords of 79.5, 80.3 and finally 82.2 on Saturday. This morning, Sunday, in the cool air at 9am his speed dropped back to 79.4 but as the weather got hotter(like yesterday), Orange Thunder responded and delivered the final 82.4 mph Beetle record.

As a bonus, Car & Driver magazine was racing a 200 mph Bugatti Veyron(from the high end of the Volkswagen family of fine cars) and requested both Dan and Juan bring their bugs over to a special photo shoot on the tarmac with the Veyron. If all goes well, we will hopefully see the two 36hp Challenge Beetles in good company on the pages of Car & Driver. When and if the photos make the magazine, we will let you know when the issue hit's the stands.

Congratulations to both Dan and Juan for bringing awareness of the 36hp Challenge to more folks with their excellent effort. And to Dan for his new SS36 record.

The 2012 VW Challenge land speed racing season has begun. May the Speed be with you..............................

Burly

[avus]

Wow! That's a record to shoot at! Congratulations Dan.

[slalombuggy]

What an absolutely stellar effort!!!!!!! Congrats to Dan and Juan. 82mph is a phenominal speed out of a SS36 motor. Way to go Beaver Geezers!!!!!!!!!

brad
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BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

[Shadd]

We are getting close! Only 5.8 more miles an hour and we will finally be able to travel back in time.
Good work boys
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[36hplandspeedracer]

I think Dan has a flexpacitor in the works now Marty(aka Michael J Fox)is scheduled to drive ! ! !

Juan & Herbie

[Roadcow]

That's simply amazing! Great work Dan and you also Juan.
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71 Westy Roadcow
67 Panel
63 Bug

74 Ghia Vert
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98 Passat

[WickedWagens]

Wow! great job.
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68' Bug 1641 turbo. Soon to be 36hp powered.
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72' Volksrod

[splitpile]

Fantastic
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[The Cheetle]

Great job!!!
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Save the Salt!!

[dandand]

Thanks for the comments. Burly didn't mention that Juan wasn't too subtle about sniffing my tailpipe....apparently he was sure there was nitrous involved somewhere.
Anyway, I give the credit to the two experts that did the key engine stuff: Ray Shubert did the heads, and except for stainless steel valves, kept it stock.

Our hero, Ron Chuck used his engine dyno to find and correct all of the little problems we created when building the engine (it did go 73.49 mph before he did his magic). Glenn Patterson and I observed the test runs, took data, and kept out of the way while he did the timing, valve adjustments etc. He found over 5 more hp. (Burly promised a more detailed description). Incidently, when he finished, Ron said the car "should" go over 80 mph if, in his words "it's driven correctly"(?)

The tire swap was Glenn's idea, since we spent some wet winter days trying to find another edge, after the 75.28 mph run that Juan stomped on when our backs were turned The difference between the 165's at Bonneville, and 135's at Mojave meant, on paper, maybe 300 more rpm at the top end, but it sure worked!

My only "trick", if you can call it that, was to use the width of the runway as well as the length - for the first 1/2 mi, I got way over to the upwind side, then aimed for the downwind side of the finish line. It put the wind slightly more behind me, and also gave me a slightly longer run. The starter commented that he was a little worried when I got too close to the white lines, but he didn't mind after I told him I was doing it on purpose. He had been watching 200mph bikes all over the track when the sidewinds were gusting to 15knots, and he thought I was having similar problems I guess.

I need to point out that this probably wouldn't work at Bonneville, since the runway is 200 ft wide, much wider (I think) than the 130 track.

Thanks again for the comments. And please note that Juan is still the Bonneville record holder.

Dan and the Beaver Geezers

[meciscokid]

Aw, the tailpipe sniffing (for nitrous) really wasn't true, (sounds kinda gross actually), because Dan was very upfront and accomadating about the car and engine. Spent a week with him and he is a man of up most integrity! I started after him on one run and saw his driving style first hand! It looked like he was driving on a big right hand sweeper corner. Leave it to an aircraft enginneer to dream that up! Great Job Dan! and congratulations! Juan

[Tom Simon]

Holy-molley that's stepping it up! Congratulations!

[Fiatdude]

ABSOLUTELY GREAT READ HERE

http://www.speedhunters.com/2012/05/battleat200mph/

[bruce cook]

WHAT A RUN GREAT JOB!
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land speed nut

[ratmuller]

Dan on behalf of the Ratmuller team downunder we woukld like to congratulate you and your team for achieving such a great number, the result has spurred us on and hope to give you guys a run for your money at our speed week shortly.This is going to be very very close as we have achieved a equal hp rating and also use a tunnel trans from a 62 bug..so it may be down to tyres and temp.....again a fantastic result for the hard work...cheers steve muller

[dandand]

Here are the three "bugs" that participated in the Mojave Mile in 2012.
The one in the middle was a wee bit faster....201 mph in the first run of the day! Then it rested on it's laurels. All three were "stone stock".
Burly was there, and when he saw the Veyron, he was trying to think of a way to get our cars near it for a photo op, when the publicist from Car and Driver came to US suggesting we get together.
I don't know when/if C&D will publish the pictures, or if they'll just show up on their website or utube or whatever.



Dan
Beavergeezers Racing Team